


the beauty you have now is brighter than before

by ohhazardous



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fake Dating, Several Original Characters - Freeform, Sexual Content (minor), Violence, apperances by characters other than stiles and allison is minimal, boyd/lydia is very light, scott/isaac also quite light, supplementary gifts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-31
Updated: 2014-01-31
Packaged: 2018-01-10 16:49:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1162144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohhazardous/pseuds/ohhazardous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Allison turns to look out the window as Stiles drives them out of the parking lot and heads towards the town centre. Allison takes a few deep breaths to calm her beating heart. It’s feels like it’s been working double time to cope whatever feelings have suddenly emerged at Stiles’ presence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the beauty you have now is brighter than before

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> okay so this is my first teen wolf fanfiction ever and its been about four years since i've written fanfiction at all and probably much longer since i've written het. i hope you like it and it doesn't disappoint. many thanks to sam for the encouragement and to darkmysteriouspissed on tumblr for the beta work, your an angel. thank you so so much.

Allison has spent the last twenty minutes in the presence Mark, the son of another hunting family that’s just rolled into town. She's grumpy and he's annoying, but she knows that she has to play nice. 

She had flat out lied earlier and said she had a boyfriend when Mark had been pestering her to go out earlier. She knew from the way he condescendingly raised his left eyebrow and let a smirk appear on his face that he didn’t believe a word that had come out of her mouth. Whether that was because he didn’t want to believe or because she is just a really shitty liar is another matter entirely.

So she let him drag her out, hoping that something--anything--would happen to get him off her back. Now she’s seconds away from running to the bathroom of the diner that she’s been dragged to and trying to make her escape through the window. If it means cutting off a limb to get away from this asshole, so be it. 

Then she spots Stiles coming in.

She’s never been so glad to see him in her life. 

Stiles walks in the door and spots her. She knows that he will have her back no matter what. Stiles has never let her down. Allison lets the brightest, happiest smile she’s ever produced grace her face (and its not fake at all, nothing but one hundred percent genuine dimpled smile for one Stiles Stilinski) before calling out Stiles’ name.

He looks astounded at the call of his name. When she steps around Mark to walk quickly over to Stiles, a goofy look appears on his face...like adoration. The look he’s giving her causes butterflies in her stomach and she’s left wondering where they came from for a brief moment before she reaches him. Automatically, she presses close to him and her arms around his waist as she whispers against his ear, “Please save me.” 

Stiles laughs, sounding delighted.

Stiles wraps his arms around her shoulders and tugs her nice and close so that all she can do is press her face into his neck and inhale his musky scent. His hands rub across her shoulders soothingly and she shivers with how good it feels. She can’t help but smile into his neck, fighting the urge to giggle happily, but still all too aware that they aren’t _actually_ together. That knowledge surprisingly and intensely upsets her.

Allison feels Mark's eyes on them the entire time. She notices when he walks up to them and just stands behind her. Allison can practically envision an incredibly pissed off look on his face.

Stiles just ignores him though and tucks his head down to run his nose against her neck. The gesture’s so intimate that Allison finds her eyes fluttering closed and her mouth parts slightly to puff hot air against his neck. He shiver and her smile intensifies. They may be faking it, but Allison finds herself hoping that the fake will wear off into something else.

Mark, of course, ruins the moment by clearing his throat. Stiles doesn’t jerk away from her, doesn’t pander to the arrogance and superiority that is pouring off of Mark in waves. He just slowly lifts his head from her neck and slides his right hand down her arm, his fingers lightly tickling the hairs there before interlocking his fingers with hers. Allison looks down at their hands and bites her lip in an effort to keep her butterflies at bay.

“Who’s this?” Mark asks in that same condescending tone that set Allison’s walls up earlier in the evening. 

Stiles remains cool (years of practice having dealt with Jackson, she’s sure) and just raises his eyebrows at him before turning his gaze back to Allison to smile down at her. Allison beams back up at him before turning back to Mark and giving him the most genuine smile she can manage.

“This is my boyfriend. Remember? I told you about him.”

Mark looks like someone just ran over his cat and Allison tries really hard to not laugh. But she fails spectacularly from where she stands pressed against Stiles when she feels a rumble in his chest signifying his amusement as well.

Stiles doesn’t offer his hand out to Mark; he doesn’t smile at him or try to be his friend. He just gives this half smirk that generally pisses people off and turns back to Allison. “Ready to go?” 

She grins and leans up to press a kiss against the corner of his mouth. “Absolutely.”

She leaves Marks side only pausing to give him a half wave. It isn’t until they have reached the jeep that she realised that Stiles never let go of her hand.

~

Stiles only lets go of her hand when he opens the door to the jeep for her. He glances at her out the corner of his eye as he gets in on his side and starts the jeep before offering her a small smile that she returns. 

Allison turns to look out the window as Stiles drives them out of the parking lot and heads towards the town centre. Allison takes a few deep breaths to calm her beating heart. It’s feels like it’s been working double time to cope whatever feelings have suddenly emerged at Stiles’ presence. She closes her eyes and takes a final deep breath before letting it out slowly.

“You okay, Ally A?” he asks with a cheeky glint in his eye. 

She laughs before punching him lightly in the arm. “What have I told you about calling me that?”

“Not to?” he asks with a grin before turning his gaze back to the road in front of him. 

Allison keeps her eyes on him, taking in his long neck which is arched to the side as he looks down the road and his bow lips that curve into a smirk. She licks her lips unconsciously and imagines running her mouth up his neck and over his jaw and getting to kiss his lips and...she needs to stop that train of thought right now.

“Oh boy,” she whispers as she intentionally turns her head back toward the window.

“What’cha thinkin’ about?” Stiles asks. 

Allison feels her face heat up and she bites her lip. She turns back to Stiles hoping that he can’t tell if her cheeks have gotten red.

“Just how mad my Dad is going to be at me,” Allison answers. It’s only a white lie because her Dad is going to be mad at her for ditching Mark like that.

Stiles screws his face up and Allison laughs again. That’s one of her favourite things about Stiles--he can always make her laugh.

“What exactly happened tonight, Allison?”

“Ugh.” Allison runs her hand over her face in frustration. “Did Scott tell you about this hunting family stay with us at the moment?” Stiles nods his head so Allison continues. “They are with us only for a couple of weeks, hopefully, but Dad has been all 'show them respect, Allison’, 'have to show them we can handle this town, Allison', 'just ignore Mark. He'll be gone soon.' Which I understand, but he keeps hitting on me and touching my arm and brushing my hair out of my face--” 

Stiles lets out a noise of disbelief, stopping her mid-ramble. When she looks at him he looks like he cant believe what she's saying. “And he's still got all his limbs intact?” Stiles asks. 

“Barely.” Allison snorts. “Anyway he asked me to come out to dinner with him, and I tried to say that I had a boyfriend...” Stiles raises an eyebrow and Allison shoots him a dirty look making him grin, “but he didn’t believe me and our parents were in the room and Dad was giving me this look ...” Allison trails off again and sighs. “So I didn’t really have a choice.”

“Sucks.”

“Yeah.”

Stiles is uncharacteristically quiet for a moment. “Wanna go and get some ice cream?" he asks. "Then we can go back to my place and," he wiggles his eyebrows, "play Mass Effect.” 

She smiles at him.

Not many people know of Allison's weakness for video games, but Stiles had come across her playing the game by chance and now he always brings it up. She'll never get over the look on his face when he found her that first time and the sputtering that followed as she grinned sheepishly at him.

“You just want me to help you ‘cause you suck at Mass Effect,” Allison replies with a wink and Stiles reacts with an outrageous sound from the back of his throat. Allison wants to laugh, but she tries to keep a straight face.

“Rude, Allison. So rude.”

Allison kisses her fingers and presses it against Stiles cheek, letting them linger there a bit longer than necessary. “Forgive me?”

Stiles tries to keep a stern face, but Allison knows he's never been able to stay that mad at her. A grin spreads across his face very quickly.

“Ugh, I can never stay mad at your face.”

“I know.”

~

Allison stays at Stiles for four hours before he drives her home, she can’t remember the last time she had this much fun. Sometime before her mother died, she supposes, or perhaps even before that. Perhaps she hasn’t had so much fun since before her aunt died: before werewolves and secrets and death and destruction. 

But she did have fun. She laughed at Stiles’ lame jokes and teased him about how bad he was at Mass Effect (even though he wasn’t) and then digging her toes into his side to get him to admit she was better than him.

Afterward, they watched The Avengers and mouthed the words along to the movie. Stiles gaped at her and called her a “lying liar who lies” because she had told him a month ago that she had never seen it. Then he reached over and tickled her until she was begging him to stop. He pulled back and they just grinned at each other before going back to the movie, rewinding it because they had missed so much with their play fight. Not that it mattered. They had both seen it a thousand times, but they still couldn’t bare to miss any of it.

Stiles drives her home after the movie when she can no longer put off the confrontation with her Dad. He sings One Direction at the top of his lungs on the way over and she knows he's doing it to keep her mind off what will follow. But it does the job anyway.

He pulls up at her house and she leaves him with a kiss on the cheek and a tight hug. He assures her that he's there for whatever she needs. His eyes are sincere and honest and she believes every word out of his mouth.

She whispers, “I know,” before she walks up to her house. She turns around when she gets to the door so she can wave goodbye to him and he waves back but doesn’t leave until she's safe inside the house.

She sinks back against the door and feels the butterflies come back full force and can’t help but let out a little giggle, she covers her mouth with her hand in an attempt to stop. She drops her hand back by her side and moves away from the door, thinking she was in big, big trouble.

~

“Allison?” her father calls out from the living room. 

Allison swears quietly having hoped to make it to her bedroom before her father had realised she had come in. She puts a fake smile on her face and makes her way into the room.

Her father is frowning at her. Scarlett, the leader of the hunting family and Mark's mother, looks like she wants to strangle Allison with her bare hands. Mark himself just smirks. Allison squares her shoulders and refuses to be intimidated. She won’t apologise for ditching someone as disgusting as Mark. Friendliness with other hunter families be damned.

“Allison-” her father barely gets her name out before Scarlett has interrupted him.

“How dare you leave my son like that!” Allison has to fight the urge to roll her eyes. “Is that how your Mother raised you?” Scarlett spits out.

Allison sees her father narrow his eyes and she knows that he will have her back now one hundred percent. Mentioning her mother with such disrespect? Big. Mistake.

“Oh, you tell me, Scarlett. Did you raise your son to disrespect women? For women to bow to him and do whatever he pleases?” Allison asks with steel, “Tell me, Scarlett, when he crosses the line and assaults another women, will the blame land on your shoulders?”

“How dare--”

“Shut up,” Allison cuts her off as she takes a threatening step toward the older woman. “If you ever mention my Mother like that again, there won’t be much left of you to lead your family with.”

Allison walks out of the room because she knows if she stays there she will do much worse than just a couple of threats. As she reaches the stairs she hears her father tell Scarlett that she needs to leave his house and this town, but Allison rushes up the stairs before she can hear the rest of his sentence.

Once she gets to her room, she closes the door and collapses against it. Her legs are shaking from the confrontation and she feels tears stinging her eyes. Her legs finally give out and she sinks to the floor, all those feelings from months ago springing to the surface. The anger and sadness feels like its going to overwhelm her. She picks up her phone and calls Stiles.

“Ally A! Miss me already?” Stiles answers cheerfully. She's so upset that she doesn’t even notice the use of that horrible nickname.

“Stiles,” she chokes out. She’s horrified to hear that her voice sounds so weak.

“Allison, what's wrong?”

“She insulted my Mom. She said 'did your Mom raise you to be so awful?'” Allison takes several deep breaths. “Okay, not those exact words but the meaning was clear.”

“What a bitch.”

Allison is quiet for a few moments just taking deep breaths to calm her beating heart.

“I am though,” she whispers.

“What?”

“Awful.”

“Allison, what?” Stiles sounds completely baffled and she feels a tear roll down her cheek.

“I was awful to my Mom, Stiles. She tried to say goodbye to me. She wanted to talk to me, but I just brushed her off like a stupid teenager. I was angry because she was keeping me from Scott!” Allison bursts out.

“No, Allison, no.”

“ _Yes, Stiles_ ,” She shouts. “Maybe if I had listened to her, Gerard wouldn’t have been able to ...” Allison trails off when Stiles voice comes firm across the line.

“Allison, stop. Stop right now. Your Mom loved you. In the end that's all that matters. Yes, Gerard used and manipulated you, but playing ‘what if’ never ends in anything but tears.”

Allison sucks in a breath at how raw Stiles' voice sounds.

“Trust me, Allison. _I know_.” 

And she knows that he does. He knows better than anyone else could ever hope to.

“Focus on the positives, Allison. I know it’s hard; I know its a struggle. I _still_ struggle with it. But your Mom's last thoughts were of you. That counts for _something_.”

~

Allison walks into school the following Monday feeling a bit nervous. She's not sure that she really likes this new found nervousness that Stiles is inflicting on her, but she's determined to keep a straight face. She spots Stiles at his locker within thirty seconds of walking into the school. Despite herself, she feels her lips twitching as she watches him spin around and wave outrageously at her. She cant hold in the laugh as she makes her way over to him.

She reaches him quickly and gives him a hug. He returns it quickly, holding onto her tightly as she melts into him. She finds herself thinking that he gives some of the best hugs in existence: not afraid to hold on and squeeze tight like some boys are.

When she pulls back he has an odd look on his face. But before she can ask him about it, its replaced with a smile.

“I had a lot of fun on Saturday,” Allison admits. Even though she didn’t think it was possible, his smile seems to get even bigger.

“Me too. It's good to get back to normal.” 

“It is. So maybe we should do it more often,” Allison suggests and Stiles nods his head enthusiastically.

“I can't wait.”

Allison grins before spinning on her heel and walking away with a bounce in her step. she spots Lydia down the hall, raising an eyebrow at her. Allison shoots her an innocent look, causing Lydia to roll her eyes. Allison looks back over her shoulder to catch Stiles face one last time. He grins at her before turning to Scott and she manages to catch Scott saying 'what was that.’ She feels all the happiness drop out of her. 

Fuck. How had she forgotten about him?

~

It's been two months since the night at Stiles’ and things have been so crazy since then that she and Stiles haven’t had much time to do much of anything. She finds herself missing him even when he's standing right next to her.

But there’s been no time. She barely had time to tell Lydia about everything that happened with Stiles. When she did tell her, Lydia had an odd look on her face. No matter how many times Allison thinks about it, she still can’t figure out what it means. 

She supposes it doesn’t matter--not with all the incidents they've been dealing with at the moment. Her father's threat to Scarlett and her family seemed to work, but that doesn’t mean the threat went out to the rest of the hunting community. 

They've had another family in the area that seems to have no care for any kind of code. They haven’t done anything that could be used to run them out of town. Nothing they had proof of, anyway. They had shot Isaac in the woods and had almost run over Lydia, Boyd and Scott as they were leaving Deaton's. But there were no witnesses, so Stiles couldn’t get his Dad to arrest them or at least scare them out of town.

On top of that, Derek and Cora rolled back into town much to everyone’s surprise. They seem happier, Allison can admit. There seems to be a weight that has fallen off Derek's shoulders. Don’t get her wrong, he was still his usual “charming” self, but there was less anger and desolation in every word that come out of his mouth. 

Being reduced back to a beta seems to have done him some good, but Allison is sure that its partly having Cora back. She's not sure she will ever like him, but she trusts that he has Scott's back. That’s enough, she supposes.

She wonders if this hunting drama has something to do with the Hales, but she doesn’t dare to voice her opinion. She knows she's not exactly bias free and she doesn’t want to cause unnecessary drama, but she can’t help but take note of the fact that every time someone comes through here and causes trouble...well, it has to do with the Hales. But that sometimes means nothing. Some people are just assholes. Maybe these hunters fall into that category.

But that’s not all she's been thinking about. She can’t stop thinking about Scott and how she forgot about him. Well maybe “forgot” is a bad word. She could never really forget him. How could she? He was her first everything and she'll always remember him fondly. But that entire night she had forgotten what he was to Stiles, how important he was to him, and how important he was to her. She had been swept up in everything and let herself believe something could happen with Stiles. But how could she do that Scott? She couldn’t.

Allison let out a pitiful whine and fell back on her bed. Lydia seemed to think things were not as dire as they seemed, but Allison couldn’t help but feel like the entire situation was helpless.

There's a knock on her door and Allison yells out to come in, but its muffled into her pillow where she’s trying to smother herself.

“Allison?”

“Scott!” Allison shrieks and she's so startled by having him there that she throws her pillow which manages to hit Scott in the face. Allison looks at him with wide eyes before covering her mouth with her hand to try and stop the giggle coming out.

“So much for those alpha reflexes, huh?” she teases him with a laugh and he scowls at her playfully.

“You usually greet me much more sweetly,” he says with a pout. Allison continues to laugh.

“What are you doing here?” she asks once she's calmed down.

Scott's face turns serious. She finds herself panicking. Has something happened? Is everyone okay? Is Stiles? Is Lydia?

“Is everyone okay? Is it Stiles? Lydia?” 

Scott automatically looks contrite and quickly puts his hands on her shoulders to help calm her down.

“No, everyone is okay. I'm sorry. I didn’t mean to alarm you.” 

Allison lets out the breath she was holding and relaxes her shoulders before giving Scott a quick hug. “Well, I guess I can forgive you.” 

Scott laughs and she smiles.

“So what’s up?” she asks while wondering, does he know? Does he know she has feelings for his best friend? Does he hate her? Has she lost him?

“Did you notice that your first worry was Stiles?” Scott asks. Allison swallows thickly before averting her eyes from him. “I've known for a while now, not so much about your feelings … but about his.” Allison's head snaps up and she looks at him with wide eyes.

“He thinks he's so subtle about it,” Scott says with a grin.

“What?” Allison asks sounding completely dumbfounded and Scott gives her an amused look.

“But he's not. Well, I guess not to me anyway. At first I was a little weirded out,” Scott admits. “But its not a bad thing. We are good now right? As friends?” Scott asks and Allison quickly nods her head in agreement, still too stunned to form actual words.

“And Stiles and I always did always like the same things,” he says with a cheeky grin and Allison snorts her laughter out. “I just want you to know that I'm not mad, that I never could be. I love you both too much.”

“We love you too. And believe when I say, Scott, nothing has happened.”

“I know.” He assures her, “I know Stiles, better than anyone else could ever hope to.” He smiles down at his hands, “He would never make a move without talking to me and he will never talk to me about it cause he will always put me first.”

Allison nods her head in agreement.

“But, Allison, it is okay if he does…or if you do.” He looks so serious and she lets out a breath of relief.

“I'm glad to hear that, Scott.” she whispers and he smiles gently before swinging himself up on the bed next to her.

“So you know my secret. I don’t suppose there’s anything you want to share?” She jokes as she turns to look at him once more and is surprised to see the flush of red spread across Scott's face and down his neck.

“Oh my God, Scott McCall! You have a secret and that is not allowed!” Allison protests with a laugh and Scott laughs too.

“Why not?”

“Because!” She answers which makes Scott laugh harder.

“Okay. Well…,” Scott hesitates and looks over at her with a somewhat guilty expression on his face, “I may have teeny tiny thing for … Isaac.”

Allison tries to keep a straight face, she really really does but its too much. Scott has such a guilty look on his face and he's looking at her so earnestly and she can’t help herself the giggle comes out before she can stop it and before she knows it she's laughing so hard her shoulders are shaking.

“It's not funny,” Scott protests and Allison just sucks in a deep breath trying to get her laughter under control. She manages to stop and she wipes a tear from her eye and tries to give Scott a serious look.

“I'm sorry, Scott. But, honey, that's not a secret.”

“Yes it is!” Scott protests and Allison laughs again.

“It really isn’t,” Allison says and reaches over to pat his cheek affectionately, “You’re not really subtle at all.”

“Well, Stiles doesn’t know,” Scott says as if Stiles doesn’t know, then nobody possibly could. 

But Stiles does know, Allison knows he does because they had discussed how painful it was to watch those two oblivious idiots flirt without realising that they were flirting.

“Hate to break it to you, Scott. He does know.”

“Is he mad?” Scott asks with fear in his eyes and Allison blinks at him in surprise.

“Why would he be mad?”

“They don’t really get along.”

“That’s a two way street, Scott. And it’s only because they can both be such assholes,” Allison says with a smirk. “And plus it was just you and Stiles for so long, he needed time to adjust to everything expanding. Trust me, Scott, he's not mad. He just wants you to be happy.”

Scott's entire body seems to relax and its like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders.  
“So finally make a move, and Stiles and I will stop laughing at you two every time you try to subtly flirt.”

~

She walks him to the door when he gets up to leave and they stand there for a few moments in silence, both taking a moment to appreciate where they are at right now. The place of complete friendship, where there is no jealousy about what’s to come, just one hundred percent acceptance and support.

“You'll have to make the first move,” Scott says quietly. “He doesn’t see himself like we do. He'll never make the first move.” Scott is looking at her so seriously and she feels so overwhelmed with the intensity of his stare. He breaks his gaze away and takes a step backwards but before he turns to leave he says one more thing. “Just something you should think about.”

He turns and walks away then, leaving her with nothing but the cold wind and her own thoughts.

~

When school rolls around, Allison finds herself making a beeline for Stiles locker where she can see Stiles and Lydia discussing something in detail. Stiles is waving his hands around trying to prove his point and Lydia has one eyebrow raised completely unimpressed.

She reaches them and hesitantly says, “Hey guys.” 

They both turn to look at her and she can tell they still want to continue their argument so she needs to break this up fast before it gets out of control. She swears sometimes these two could have these discussions for hours without a single break.

“Has Scott asked Isaac out yet?” She tries to ask casually but they both zoom in on her quickly.

“Why? Do you know something we don’t? Secrets are not permitted, Allison,” Lydia states firmly and Allison laughs.

“He came over Saturday night and I had the opportunity to tell him how obvious he was being.” Lydia smirks and Stiles barks out a laugh but she notices its not his usual level of mirth. She shoots him a quizzical look but he either doesn’t see it or is ignoring it.

“I'm going to go with yeah, he asked him out.” Lydia says and both Stiles and Allison follow her gaze to see Scott and Isaac holding hands as they walk down the hall. 

Allison has to bite her lip to stop the giggle that wants to come out because Isaac looks like he cant believe what's happening is really real.

“Isaac looks like he's going to pass out,” Stiles says in an amused tone and Lydia smirks at the sight before her gaze drifts elsewhere and she squares her shoulders and strides off down the hall towards Boyd who is at the end of the hall.

She notices that Stiles is also about to walk away and she quickly grasps onto his hand to keep him in place.

“Are you okay? You didn’t seem as amused as I thought you would about Scott and Isaac,” She asks him seriously but he doesn’t answer just looks at her oddly. “I told Scott you wouldn’t be mad...you’re not mad right?”

Whatever mood that had seemed to take a hold of him at her gentle questioning seems to evaporate before her very eyes and he blesses her with one of his kind smiles. 

“I'm not mad, I promise.” He kisses her forehead and wraps an arm around her shoulders in a one armed hug. “Come on, I'll walk you to class.”

~

“So what else did you and Scott talk about?” Lydia asks with her eyebrows raised and Allison feels a flush come over her cheeks. “Ah. Stiles then?” Lydia asks and Allison finds herself nodding along. “Gave you permission, right?” 

Again Allison nods her head and feels a smile take over her face, she lets herself get caught up in the idea of her and Stiles. It's a nice thought. She's taken away from her musing when she feels Lydia grasp her hand tightly.

“Do you remember when you first told me you had feelings for Stiles?” Lydia asks.

“Of course.” Allison says and she remembers the look on Lydia's face when she told her, how it morphed into something that Allison couldn’t identify for a second and Allison knows this her chance to ask Lydia about it.

“I told you and for a split second you had this odd look on your face,” Allison says and she watches in fascination as a blush spreads across Lydia's cheeks. “And then you told me to tell you how good he was at oral when we got around to it. Kind of hard to forget.” Allison smirks and Lydia laughs.

“That look on my face … I don’t want you to think it was about having any romantic feelings for Stiles.” Lydia says seriously and Allison's eyebrows shoot up.

“It honestly hadn’t crossed my mind.”

“Stiles and I have settled into this friendship since the alpha pack.” Lydia continues as though Allison hasn’t spoken. “I feel I understand him better than almost anyone bar Scott. We are on such even footing now and even though it may not seem like it sometimes when we get into our heated debates but he is important to me.”

Allison nods her head because she knows all this, its obvious to anyone with eyes how much Lydia and Stiles respect each other now.

“What I'm trying to say Allison, is that that look was just concern, concern for him.” Allison frowns at Lydia and seeing her look Lydia hurries to continue, “He feels things so intensely and he loves so easily. Look what happened with us, I know what he felt for me wasn’t really love because he didn’t know me well enough to really feel that but he thought he did, and it lasted for years. What I'm trying to say is don’t go into this lightly, if you don’t feel even five percent of what he clearly feels for you then don’t go there.”

Allison's gets the suspicion she's getting the 'big sister talk' and she's not sure of how she feels about that.

“Do you think I'm not as into him as he is into me?”

“I don’t know, you play things close to your chest sometimes, Allison. Even with me, you told me you like him. You told me enough for me to know that you’re seriously into him but not much else. Whereas Stiles wears his heart on his sleeve. You can always tell.”

Allison looks at Lydia seriously before answering. “I'm completely gone on him.” She admits and Lydia laughs.

“I'm glad to hear it. And trust me I'll be giving him the most terrifying hurt my best friend speech known to mankind once you ask him out. So don’t feel like I'm only giving you this talk.”

Allison laughs, “When I ask him out?”

“Please, you don’t actually think he will do it do you?”

~

They were all at Stiles place when the wolves heard someone coming, they rushed outside to see the daughter of the Jäger hunting family stumbling towards them, Scott rushes forward and catches her before she hits the ground. There was blood oozing out of her neck.

“Shit,” Stiles swore before taking his jacket off and kneeling down besides Scott and pressing his jacket against her neck to try and stop the blood flow while Lydia opened her phone and called an ambulance.

She coughed and blood came out of her mouth as she tried to speak.

“Shh, dont talk,” Scott says quietly and its like all has been forgiven for any crimes she may have committed against them.

“Have to...tell you,” She stutters out, “Find...Alexis Frey...help...three towns over.”

She died in Scott's arms before the ambulance had even gotten there and Scott had wanted to go to the hospital with the body despite everyone being skeptical about Scott being in the same vicinity as the Jäger family when they found out one of their own had died. In the end they had all gone with Scott to the hospital. They watched as the family was notified, Allison took the time to figure out who they were looking at. She knew it was Lars, the head of the family and Hanna’s father, when he fell to his knees at the news and let out an earth shattering wail of despair. There was only one other person with they were close enough to them to hear that that was Axel, Lars’ younger brother and second in command.

From what they could hear all the family knew was that Hanna had been at the house of the local pack of werewolves and had died from a wound on her neck, no amount of reasoning could make them believe that they had nothing to do with it. 

They were out for blood.

~

“We need to find this Alexis Frey,” Stiles says at their next pack meeting, “I got Dad to do some digging and we found her three towns over just like Hanna said. I'm going to go and talk to her.” Stiles says firmly.

“You’re not going by yourself,” Scott, Derek and Melissa all protest at the same time. 

Stiles had already discussed this with Allison last night when she had crashed at his place. She knows that the Sheriff has already okayed him going as long as he doesn’t go by himself.

“Allison is coming with me,” Stiles states simply and she watches as her Dad's eyebrows shoot up as he looks at her. 

She won’t budge on this though. She's not letting Stiles out of her sight. They've all been doubling up since the incident, Scott doesn’t want anyone to be by themselves in case anyone from the Jäger family come after them. And as awful as she feels to think it, she doesn’t trust anyone else with Stiles safety.

“Is she?” her Dad asks.

“Yes,” Allison says flatly and she meets her dad's stare head on. She doesn’t know what he sees in her eyes but whatever it is, it seems enough to satisfy him.

“Okay,” Scott says hesitantly, “but I want you to stick together. I don’t care if you have to follow Stiles into the men’s toilets.”

“Count on it.”

~

The drive doesn’t take too long, but it feels like forever. The atmosphere in the car is tense. Usually car rides are filled with laughter and light with Stiles, with him always trying to get a laugh out of her but this meeting will be too important and neither of them can really be bothered to lighten the atmosphere. And the weather outside seems to fit their mood inside the car as well, there has been a steady stream of rain since they left and it looks like there could be a storm coming.

The Jäger family has always been ahead of them. They've constantly been on the defensive. And they still don’t know what the Jägers want or what exactly has been done to fuel this intense need to wipe out their pack. It's true that there doesn’t always need to be a reason behind hunting logic. But Scott feels, and Allison agrees, that there is more to this than just a simple hatred for werewolves.

Stiles pulls up outside the apartment complex that his dad had tracked Alexis too.

“Should we just knock or--?” she questions Stiles as they get to the door of the apartment where Alexis should be living. 

Stiles doesn’t answer her he just pulls a pin out of his pocket and picks the lock. Allison lets out a surprised sound when he gets it open in under thirty seconds. He looks up and grins at her.

“My mom taught me.”

They share a bittersweet smile before entering the apartment quietly. Its completely dark inside and none of them have wolf sight to make sure they don’t bump into anything. 

Stiles is slightly ahead of her as they move into the apartment and before Allison can blink there is a blur slamming into Stiles and shoving him up against the wall, a clawed hand grasping his throat. Allison is seconds behind her with her knife out and against the creature’s throat.

“Let him go,” Allison whispers in anger and the creature turns its eyes towards Allison and they glow bright blue back at her. Werewolf then.

“Alexis?” Stiles asks and the werewolf turns to look back at Stiles. “Are you Alexis?”

The hand around Stiles throat stops and the claws retreat. Allison drops her knife as soon as Stiles gives her the okay. The three of them stare at each other for a few moments before Alexis moves into another room and turns on the light, Allison and Stiles follow her into what appears to be a lounge room.

“Who are you? You smell like wolfsbane.”

“Hanna Jäger sent us.”

“And why would Hanna send some hunters to me?”

“Because she thought you could help us. Her family is trying to wipe out our pack and it’s officially gone too far,” Stiles states firmly and Alexis looks at him quizzically.

“How far is too far?”

“Hanna was killed and we got framed for it. Now her father is out for our blood.”

Alexis pales at the words and despite her natural grace as a werewolf she stumbles backwards. She sinks down onto the sofa that is behind her.

“It wasn’t your pack? You’re sure of that?”

“Absolutely. We were all together when Hanna came stumbling towards us with a wound on her neck.” 

Alexis runs a hand across her face in despair.

“Who was she to you?” Allison asks gently.

“She was my daughter.” 

Allison looks over at Stiles and tries to convey with a look ‘oh fuck, we just told her her daughter died so carelessly’ and Stiles winces in acknowledgment.

“She's the only one in that family who knew I was still alive,” Alexis whispers to herself before seemingly pulling herself together to look back up at Stiles and Allison. 

Allison thinks she's keeping herself very well composed for finding out that her daughter just died but Allison understands the desire not to fall apart in front of complete strangers.

“What pack are you part of?”

“The McCall pack in Beacon Hills,” Stiles answers and Alexis' eyes seem to sharpen at his answer.

“Where the Hale pack used to be.”

Allison and Stiles share a weary look before hesitantly nodding their heads.

“And do you have any Hales in your McCall pack?” She asks.

“Yes.” And this is what Allison feared--that everything they have been dealing with is because of something from the Hale's past.

“Cora Hale?” She asks.

Allison and Stiles are surprised by her singling Cora out. Of all the Hales, its the one they know the least about that she mentions. Considering not even Derek knew that Cora was alive until earlier in the year...something’s not right here.

Alexis has clearly taken their silence as a positive answer. “There's your reason. Of course Axel would track her down.” 

Axel being Hanna's uncle who seems to be fuelling the hatred that Hanna's father is feeling.

Allison and Stiles share a confused look but Alexis doesn’t seem to notice. 

“It was a long time ago now,” she says in a far away voice. “Cora would have been quite young. She was living with a pack in São Paulo. It would have been shortly after the infamous Hale House fire happened.” 

Allison flinches at the mention of the fire and Stiles reaches over to grasp her hand in comfort.

“We had decided to take a break from hunting and have a normal family holiday. We were ignorant, we did no research about what could possible be out there, we had no idea about the local pack.” She lets out a dry laugh that has no humour to it at all. “What kind of hunting family were we?”

“At the time, Axel had a son named Karl. He was a cute kid who had no fear,” Alexis remembers with a fond smile. It’s the first smile they've seen on her face. “He was adventurous and never hesitated to run off and make friends or get himself into trouble. And Axel was arrogant, he thought nothing bad could ever happen.” she rolls her eyes.

“Karl had made two friends one day and he was always running off to play with them. We never thought much of it. They seemed sweet and Axel wouldn’t hear any complaints anyway.” She shakes her head and her eyes get a far away look in them. “Until one day we heard a scream. It wasn’t the scream of a child, but of an adult. We ran to help anyway...it was in our nature. When we got there, Karl was lying on the ground dead from a huge bite wound on his neck. The boy he usually played with was gone and in his place was an adult woman and the little girl. The little girl had blood all over her mouth. She had killed him.”

Alexis finished the story flatly and Stiles and Allison sit there completely dumbfounded at what they have heard. Is this why Cora doesn’t like to talk about her past? Because she did something horrible as a child? Something probably done in that aftermath of the fire when she still had the grief of losing her pack heavy in her bones?

“I took a step towards them, I don't know what I was going to do, but I must have looked pretty threatening,” she whispers and looks off to the side. “The women was the Alpha of the pack and she reacted on instinct. She lunged at me and she bit me.”

Allison looks at her in wonder, is this what her own mother could have been, if she had accepted the bite and hadn’t taken her own life. 

She must have a far away look in her eye because Stiles leans over to whisper in her ear, “Don’t go there Allison.” He always seems to know what she's thinking.

They turn their attention back to Alexis who is looking at them in interest, but she seems to shake herself out of it before continuing. “We waited to see if the bite would take. It did. My husband, Hanna's father, was so optimistic about it. Felt we could just adjust. But Axel...Axel was a different story. He was overwhelmed with grief and it turned him into something ugly. All he cared about was revenge and his hatred for werewolves intensified.”

She seems to be taken over by her own grief, whether its because of the memory of Karl dying or grief over losing her entire family because of what she became is another matter entirely.

“He cornered me one night and he tried to kill me. He came close too. He shot me four times with wolfsbane and if it hadn’t been for the alpha of that local pack, then I would have died. They saved me and I made myself disappear. And disappear I did, until Hanna managed to track me down… she told me that Axel told Lars, my husband, that I had taken my own life. That I was unable to deal with being a werewolf.”

She seems to have finished her story completely now, her head lowers and she looks down at her hands seemingly in her own world now and when she looks up again her eyes are glowing blue.

“You should leave now or you wont make it home in this storm.” 

She uses the storm as an excuse, but Stiles and Allison knows she just want them to leave so she can grieve in peace. They stand up to leave, still holding hands because Allison isn’t quite ready to let go of Stiles just yet, and Alexis walks them to the door. Before they can close the door behind them, Alexis grasps Allison's shoulder to say one last thing.

 

“Don’t be so sure that Cora is the guilty one. I never believed that she was the one to bite Karl. The blood around her mouth was too dry and the pattern of it seemed odd...like someone had wiped that blood on her face and then run away to let her take the fall.”

 

She looks at them seriously and waits for them to nod their understanding, “Know this: Axel will stop at nothing to get his revenge.”

 

“Even by killing his own niece?” Stiles asks bravely and Alexis stares at him with her glowing blue eyes.

“Even that.”

~

 

Stiles phone rings as soon as they slam the car doors shut behind them, he puts it on speaker as he starts the car.

“Dad, hey. We’re on our way home now.”

“No. I want you guys to find somewhere to stay the night. You can’t be driving in this,” the Sheriff insists firmly.

 

“Dad, no, it’s fine,” Stiles says just as a flash of lightening brightens up the sky followed quickly by a loud clap of thunder.

 

“You were saying?” the Sheriff asks dryly and Stiles huffs while Allison lets out a snort of laughter causing Stiles to shoot her a look of betrayal.

 

“Seriously, Stiles,” Scott's voice comes over the phone, “The Jäger's have been really quiet, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t crazy enough to try something tonight if you come back into town.”

Stiles sighs and Allison hides a smile because she knows Stiles can never say no to Scott.

“Lydia says to use the credit card she gave Allison and not to stay somewhere gross like Motel 6.” 

Both Allison and Stiles snort at that.

“Okay, fine.”

“Did you find out anything?” Scott asks. Allison and Stiles share a long look. “Your silence is very telling,” Scott says dryly.

“We found out quite a bit, but its best to discuss in person, Scott. There's an accusation we'll be throwing around and we don't need to do that over the phone,” Allison says quietly and she hears Scott hum in reply.

 

“Okay, well, tomorrow then.”

~

They find a reasonably priced motel not far from Alexis' place. Despite Lydia's demands for them to stay somewhere nice, they don't want to get her into too much trouble with her Dad and Allison knows that she personally would feel a bit awkward about being alone with Stiles in some fancy hotel.

Allison has just gotten out of the shower and is standing in the bathroom in her bra and shorts looking in the mirror wondering if they'll make it through this confrontation. She bites her lip and looks towards the closed door where Stiles is on the other side. She’s unsure as to whether or not she should go out there and let him know that she wants to be with him, is the risk greater than the reward? Despite assurances from Scott and Lydia she still feels uncertain about Stiles feelings for her.

On the other hand has she wasted too much time already? What if they don’t make it through the fight with the Jäger family? Because Allison is sure there will be a fight, it cant end in any other way. But, no, they’ll make it through, right? She looks back towards the mirror and shakes her head. No, she's not wasting any more time, its time to put her brave face on and make a move, well its way past that time if anything Lydia has been saying is true.

She squares her shoulders and marches over to the door, completely forgetting to put her top back on. She swings open the door and marches out. Stiles looks over and his eyes widen.

“All--” Stiles doesn’t even have time to finish saying her name before Allison grasps his t-shirt and pulls him close to her. 

She presses her mouth against his in a firm kiss. He seems to be so shocked that he isn’t responding to her, but she doesn’t let that deter her. She slides her arms up around his neck and presses her body flush against his. The action seems to kick Stiles out of his stupor and he tentatively places his hands on her lower back as he kisses her back.

Once he starts to really kiss her back and it appears that he gets the message that it is okay to actually hold her, Allison lets herself relax a bit. She lets herself feel everything happening around her, feels the warmth of Stiles hands on her bare back, and the slide of his lips against hers. She feels her toes curl against the carpet as the butterflies in her stomach settle into a pleasant hum.

Allison pulls back so she can push his t-shirt over his head. He lifts his arms to help her and she drops the shirt to the floor before kissing him again, pressing herself up against his chest once more.

Allison breaks the kiss when breathing becomes a necessity and starts to pull away, but Stiles follows her, pressing a quick kiss to her mouth before resting his forehead against hers and breathing heavily.

“Why now?” he whispers.

“Because I don’t want another ‘what if,’” Allison replies steadily.

Stiles looks into her eyes for a few moments before offering a tiny smile. Allison smiles back while letting her fingers flex on the back of his neck. She can feel his fingers making soft circles on her back and it makes her shiver.

Allison lets her fingers trail down his chest until she reaches his jeans and she undoes the buttons and pushes his jeans over his hips and lets them fall down to his ankles, Stiles steps out of his jeans without breaking eye contact with her.

“Stiles, I want ...” 

He presses closer to her at the words and move his head so he can place a kiss on her jaw.

“I don’t know if I'm ready for sex,” he admits. She watches as a flush makes its way across his cheeks and down his neck and she wonders how much it took for him to admit that. “At least not all the way...I wanna try something though…if you'll let me.” He lets his fingers trail down her back to rest on the top of her shorts and he hooks his fingers into the waistband. He looks her in the eye. He seems to be nervous.

“Okay.”

“I might be bad.”

“You wont be.”

She supposes he could be, but she doubts it. Whether he’ll use his fingers or he's planning to go down on her, she thinks he will be good at it. It may be because she's had about a million fantasies of him going down on her and having his long fingers curling inside of her. But it’s hard to imagine him being bad at it.

She moves her hands down to cover his on her hips, before stepping back and removing her shorts and underwear. She kicks them away before stepping backwards and hitting the bed, sliding herself upwards so she's resting against the headboard. She spreads her legs wide and watches as he swallows thickly and stares at her. The look in his eyes makes her feel desired in a way she hasn’t felt in a long time.

He climbs onto the bed and his hands shake as he rests them lightly on her thighs. She reaches down to cover his hands with hers once more before trying to encourage him with a smile.

She lets go of his hands and he freezes. She's trying to be patient, but she's involuntary twitching at the sight of him. She watches as his eyes seem to focus in, revealing the moment he decides to throw caution into the wind.

He moves so quickly she barely has time to blink before she's arching up into his mouth. He hasn’t even done much really. He just presses his mouth against her, but it feels amazing. She grips the sheets in her hands as Stiles hums against her before darting his tongue out to lick at her before sucking her clit into his mouth. Allison's toes curl as she moans while Stiles sucks hungrily. Stiles eats her out with unashamed enthusiasm and it makes her feel light headed.

Allison knows she won't last much longer. 

“Stiles,” she moans loudly and barely registers the feeling of him smiling against her as she feels pressure overwhelm her. A flash of heat and a pulsing sensation encase her as her muscles tighten and she comes with a loud groan.

Allison continues to breathe heavily as she comes down from her orgasm. With heavy lidded eyes, she watches as Stiles continues to lick at her until she’s done riding out her orgasm.

He pushes himself up to his knees and looks at her, apparent desire still in his eyes. 

She manages a helpless grin before managing to breathe out, “I can do you in a minute.”

He laughs breathlessly before rubbing the back of his neck, “It's okay.”

“No, Stiles, really,” she protests and reaches for him. He catches her hand with his and squeezes her fingers. She looks at him and is rewarded with a slight flush and a sheepish smile.

“Really, Allison. I'm okay,” He says as his eyes flick downwards.

She follows his gaze to see a wet spot on his boxer briefs. Her eyes widen and her mouth falls open. She feels her heart rate speed up again and the butterflies are back in her stomach with a vengeance. 

He came just from going down on her. Holy shit.

“Fuck, that's so hot,” she whispers and Stiles lets out a breathless laugh before leaning down to kiss her once more. She giggles against his mouth and presses closer to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him on top of her.

She falls asleep in his arms with a smile on her face.

~

They pull up outside Derek's new loft where they are supposed to meet the pack to discuss their findings. They both stay in the car and don’t get out right away. Stiles looks over at Allison with wry look on his face.

“Think they can smell it on us?” he asks. Allison laughs.

“Well, we did shower this morning,” she answers and he smirks back at her.

“I think that only works if you take showers separately,” he answers before leaning over to kiss her quickly. 

She's smiling when he pulls away. When she opens her eyes he's grinning at her happily.

“Yeah, I guess that blow job in the shower kind of defeated the purpose of getting clean.”

Stiles laughs and she can see the happiness in his eyes, making her feel content despite what’s to come.

“No regrets right?” he asks hesitantly and she nods her head before reaching over the grasp his hand and bring it up to her lips.

They share one last kiss before getting out of the car and heading up to Derek's loft. The pack and Peter are already there when they walk in. The pack looks up and smiles at them.

“How did it go?” Scott asks when they sit down. 

Allison and Stiles share a look. She wishes they had discussed in the car how they were going to lead into the discussion.

“That well, huh?” Boyd asks dryly from where he's sitting with Lydia leaning against him. 

“Well, I guess first thing we should mention is that Alexis was actually Hanna's mom.” There's complete silence when Stiles says that. Allison looks at her Dad, then Melissa, and then the Sheriff to see the look of distress on their faces.

“And we kind of broke the death of her family member kind of carelessly,” Stiles says flatly. “Also she's a werewolf.” 

Everyone's eyes widen.

“She told us some other stuff...” Stiles trails off.

“What?” Derek barks out at them and they both wince.

“She said they would be here for Cora.” Allison says quickly, ripping it off like a band aid. 

Derek frowns at them as Cora sit up slightly.

“What?”

“Something about a death that happened in São Paulo just after the fire,” Stiles says quietly and they all watch as Cora pales significantly.

“It wasn’t me,” Cora blurts out unexpectedly.

“Alexis thought the same thing,” Allison admits and watches as the shock reaches Cora's face. “She said some things ‘didn’t fit.’”

 

“I don’t … I don’t think I can tell the story,” Cora admits and Stiles gives her a comforting smile.

“We can tell it but it will be Alexis' version.” At Cora's nod Stiles repeated Alexis’ tale to the pack as Allison watched the emotion cross over their faces. When Stiles finishes everyone is staring at them in shock before swivelling their heads to look at Cora who is looking at her hands.

“She also said that she felt that the way the blood was smeared on your face that she didn’t think you had been the one to do it. But there's no way Axel would believe it.”

Cora finally looks up at Allison's words and she takes a deep breath. 

“It was the other boy, his name was Alejandro. The pack took me in when I stumbled across them after the fire. I owed them a lot.” Her eyes look honest and pleading for them to understand, “We met Karl, but we had no idea he was from a hunting family. He was just another kid that we had fun playing with. Then one day Alejandro bit him. For no reason.” She lets out a humorless laugh. “Bit is probably saying it lightly. He tore a huge chunk out of his neck.” 

Everyone blanches at Cora's words.

She takes a few deep breaths before continuing. “He just laughed and then he put some of the blood on his hands and wiped it on my face. it was still obvious that he had been the one to bite Karl. But when the Alpha showed up, she told him to run. She let me take the fall and then she wouldn’t let anyone tell the truth. He didn’t even get punished.”

Allison swallows thickly at the story and slips her hand into Stiles' so she can ground herself. It's an awful story, and now they have to deal with the consequences. Stiles steps closer to her so their sides are pressed together as well.

“And you stayed with them?” Stiles asks.

Cora looks at Derek. “Where else was I supposed to go?”

~

“I think we need to confront them,” Derek says firmly.

Usually Allison would probably roll her eyes, but this time she happens to agree. They can’t keep waiting for the Jäger family to make a move.

“I agree,” Allison and Stiles say at the same time.

Everyone stares at them, including Derek who looks just as shocked as the others. Yeah, okay. The three of them don’t agree very often.

“We can’t keep waiting for them to make a move, Scott,” Allison says firmly.

 

“But...”

 

“Scott, I know you'd like everyone to live if possible. I do agree to a certain point, but I think Lars is mixed up in Axel's need for revenge. We can’t just sit here and do nothing. We need to have this confrontation and it needs to be on our terms,” Stiles says. “Alexis also said that she thinks Axel would stop at nothing to have his revenge. Even killing his own niece.”

Scott finally nods his head in agreement and the Sheriff suggests that he be the one to arrange the meeting. It’s the safer option since they probably don’t want the entire Sheriff’s Department on their backs.

Although the pact now has a plan, they need to wait a little longer.

~

“Do you really think we can convince Lars that his brother is a lying piece of shit?” Allison asks flatly from Stiles’ bed half an hour before the meeting is supposed to happen. Stiles snorts.

“I don’t know if we can completely convince him, but I think we can put enough doubt in his mind,” Stiles replies. 

Allison bites her lip. She's nervous. What if this goes wrong and they lose everything?

“Hey,” Stiles says as he comes over to kneel down in front of her so he's looking up at her, he grasps her hands tightly. “It's going to be okay. We can win this.”

She twists her fingers so they are interlocked with his before leaning forward to rest her forehead against his.

“I don’t want to lose anyone. To lose you,” Allison whispers.

Stiles sighs before kissing her. He pulls back, but doesn’t go far and she can still feel his breath on her face.

“You won’t.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” 

~

They've been standing in front of the ruins of the old Hale house for fifteen minutes when the Jäger family shows up. Axel looks ready for a fight. He smirks at them as though this is already over. As if their pack has no chance against them. Lars, on the other hand, has possibly the best poker face in existence.

“Let’s settle this,” Scott says calmly and Lars shakes his head while Axel cackles to himself.

“You have to know we aren’t going to let you live,” Lars says.

“You have to know that your brother's a lying douchebag,” Stiles replies before anyone else can say anything. 

Axel bristles at the light insult, but Lars doesn’t even blink.

“Oh, and exactly how is my brother a liar?”

“You mean other than the fact that he told you your wife committed suicide when he tried to kill her, but failed dismally?” Allison asks with her eyebrow raised.

“You’re a liar,” Lars replies sounding suspicious.

“She really isn’t,” Stiles says. “In fact we saw Alexis just two days ago. She's lovely by the way.” He smiles as Allison watches as Axel's smirk falter. She can see the panic enter his eyes.

“Don’t listen to them, Lars. They’re just trying to make us lose trust in each other,” Axel says. In that moment, Axel reminds her completely of Gerard. She hates him a little bit more.

Before anyone else can answer, there is a blur behind Axel before Alexis appears with her clawed hand wrapped around Axel's neck. The members of the Jäger family spins around, raising their weapons in her direction. She just gives them looks of disgust as she tightens her grip on Axel, who looks completely shocked at her appearance.

“No, that’s not possible,” he stammers. “I ...”

“Killed me?” Alexis asks with a sadistic smile. “Oh, Sweetheart. You tried.”

“Alexis?” Lars takes a hesitant step toward his wife. Alexis eyes soften just slightly when she looks at him, but her grip never loosens on Axel.

“You've been blind, Lars,” she says flatly before turning her gaze back to Axel. She digs her claws into his neck. Blood drips down his neck. “Tell Lars what you did.”

“Why? He obviously already knows now,” Axel spits and Alexis lets out a loud heartless laugh.

“Oh, Sweetie. Not what you did to me. What you did to Hanna.” 

Lars frowns at this and Axel seems to pale even further.

“I hacked into the police station database and read the coroners report,” Alexis says. “Hanna didn’t die from a bite. She died of a knife wound. Admit it. Admit what you did to my daughter so you could get your revenge.”

Allison hears Lars murmur something undecipherable as he watches his wife and brother. Allison knows what he’s feeling and she’s sorry that he’s having to watch it unfold like she had to with Kate. But she never lowers her weapon. There is no way in telling what way this going to turn.

“TELL HIM!” Alexis roars in Axel's ear. Axel mumbles something that causes Alexis to dig her claws further into his neck. “Look him in the eyes and tell him to his face how you murdered his daughter.”

Axel finally raises his eyes to look Lars in the eyes. All pretences of who he was are gone as he smiles at his brother.

“I did what I had to ensure I got my revenge,” he says maliciously

“By killing my daughter?” Lars fumes. “You bastard.” 

“I had to, Lars. You have to understand,” Axel struggles against Alexis. “She was going to help them organise a treaty. I had to get my revenge.” Axel looks at Lars as if Lars will completely understand his insane reasoning. As if the bond of brothers is stronger than the love of a father.

“Well, now you'll never get any revenge at all,” Alexis says viciously.

“Alexis, please no! You’re better than this,” Lars says to his wife.

Allison thinks that Alexis is past the point of no return. Her agenda is obvious. Avenge her daughter. A daughter who did nothing wrong and lost her life anyway.

Alexis looks at Lars and shakes her head. “You don’t know me any more, Lars. This is exactly who I am,” she says and she flashes her blue eyes at him. 

It shocks Lars enough so that Alexis can turn her focus back to Axel. Within seconds, she has ripped his throat out, letting his body drop to the ground as she looks down at him. There’s no sympathy and no regret. Just disgust in her gaze, as if even ripping his throat out wasn’t enough to satisfy her.

She looks up again and looks right at Allison and Stiles. Alexis nods at them. “Stiles, Allison,” she pauses, “thanks.” She turns and walks away.

When she is gone her father steps forward and Allison looks at him in surprise, but he doesn’t seem to notice. He just keeps on walking until he reaches Lars and places a hand on his shoulder.

“Do you want to bury him, Lars?” Her father asks hesitantly. Lars shakes his head. “Then go home, we'll take care of it.” Her father places a hand on the other hunter’s shoulder. “I get it, believe it or not … something similar happened to my family too.” 

Her father looks back at Allison and she’s thankful that she didn’t lose her whole family, like Lars just lost all of his.

Lars slowly stands up and walks away with what’s left of the remaining hunters.

The pack is left there in silence after the others clear out.

“Well, that was anti-climatic,” Peter says.

“Shut up, Peter.”

~

Scott tells the Hales to go home. They don’t need to be here to watch as they burn Axel’s body. The Sheriff leaves too, claiming he doesn’t need to be around for illegal body burning. But everyone else stays. Allison refuses to leave her Dad there by himself to handle this. This entire situation is too reminiscent of her own family, and he'll need the support even if its only the silent kind.

She turns to her right to look at Stiles, Scott, and Isaac as Lydia leans on Boyd to her left. They have all been pretty quiet since the fire started.

She lightly touches Stiles hand. “Did you know that she had followed us?”

“Not really.” He shrugs. “I thought she might follow us. Only because I think if some random people showed up on my door and told me that someone killed one of you…I would want that revenge too,” He admits. “And her eyes flashed blue, so I thought she might not have any issues with ripping his throat out. 

 

They all fall silent at Stiles words, all realising how lucky they were that everything turned out the way it did.

 

“But Scott mentioned that he thought he smelled a rogue wolf in the area before we met here. But whenever he got a lock on the scent it would disappear. I didn’t know for sure that it was her, but I had hoped it was.”

Allison lets the warmth of the fire surround her with the silence. It’s nice for it to be all over, even if they did end up worrying for nothing. Allison sighs and rests her head on Stiles' shoulder. She hopes things are stable for a little while now. It would be nice to be drama free for a couple of months.

~

Going to school Monday morning is weird. Allison supposes she should be used to it by now. Fights hunters and werewolves on the weekend, tries to cram all her homework in on Sunday night.

Stiles is waiting for her by the jeep. She grins when she sees him and bounces off in his direction. He laughs at her, for which she punches him lightly in the arm when she gets to him. He gives her a mock wounded look.

“Don’t laugh at me, mister,” she scolds lightly. 

He grins before grabbing her by the waist and pulling her close to him so he can kiss her. She pulls back with a smile and slips her hand into his, interlocking their fingers.

They head into school, Scott sees them from where he's standing with Isaac at his locker and shoots them a teasing smile. 

“About time,” he says when they walk past him. 

Stiles flips him off. “Like you have room to talk.” 

They all share a laugh.

They reach Stiles’ locker and Allison leans against the locker next to his while he takes some books out. She smiles when Lydia walks up with Boyd following behind.

“Stiles,” Lydia says sternly, “we will be having a talk later.” 

Allison bites her lip to stop her laughter from coming out when Stiles tries to hide behind his locker.

“No! I'm not ready!” He protests loudly.

Boyd snorts in laughter while Lydia shoots Stiles an unimpressed look.

“Well that’s just too bad. After school, Stiles. Don’t keep me waiting.” She grasps Boyd's arm and drags him after her toward their first class.

Stiles closes his locker and looks at Allison. “I'm terrified.” 

This time Allison can’t help but laugh as she grasps onto Stiles jacket and pulls him toward her. She hugs him and presses her face into his neck before kissing him there softly. She pulls back to look up to him.

“It's okay. If it gets too bad, you can always ask her about her intentions towards Boyd.” 

Stiles smirks and she knows Lydia has heard her when she hears an outraged sound coming from down the hall. Allison looks up to see a laughing Boyd pull Lydia away.

Stiles wraps an arm around her shoulders and starts to walk her towards her first class. Allison smiles, pressing herself in tightly to his side as she grasps his other hand in hers. She can’t say that nothing bad will ever happen here again, but with Scott and Isaac being blissfully happy, Lydia finally going after a guy that will treat her like she deserves, Derek and Cora settling down and, of course, her and Stiles finally on the same page, she feels like things are finally starting to look up.

“Okay?” Stiles asks as he squeezes her shoulder lightly. 

She looks up at him and smiles.

“Never better.”

~


End file.
